Will frog legs have legs?

From the amount of mail and calls I receive whenever frogs legs are mentioned, I know this is one dish with a devoted following in the area.

And global tastes for them only seems to be growing. So much so, in fact, that frogs could be nearing extinction.

According to a brief in the Washington Post, “The global trade in frogs for food has risen to at least 200 million a year, and perhaps as many as 1 billion. ‘Amphibians are already the most threatened animal group … man’s massive appetite for their legs is not helping,’ said Corey Bradshaw of the University of Adelaide in Australia.”

I have to confess I’m one person not contributing to the shortage. I have eaten them before, but I never developed a taste for them. Plus, the scene of kids frog gigging at the beginning of Bertolucci’s “1900” was almost enough to put me off this meat for good.